Read more   ● El Presidio Historic District welcomes the whole city to its annual 1900 Festival. Read more about the Nov. 7 event next week in Home.     Local historic regions   These five neighborhoods have the city of Tucson Historic District designation, meaning homes in the neighborhood can't be significantly altered. They are also on the National Register of Historic Places. The dates indicate when each neighborhood received the local designation.   ● Armory Park (1974)   ● Barrio Historico (1975)   ● El Presidio (1975)   ● Fort Lowell (1978)   ● West University (1980)   Nationally listed neighborhoods   These neighborhoods are on the National Register of Historic Places:   ● University of Arizona Campus Historic District   ● Iron Horse Expansion Historic District   ● El Encanto Estates Residential Historic Districts   ● Colonia Solana Residential Historic District   ● John Spring Neighborhood Historic District   ● Speedway-Drachman Historic District   l Menlo Park Multiple Resource Area   ● Sam Hughes Residential Historic District   ● Warehouse Historic District   ● El Montevideo Residential Historic District   ● Pie Allen Residential Historic District   ● Indianhouse Residential Historic District   ● Blenman-Elm Historic District   ● Catalina Vista Historic District   Pending   These two neighborhoods will be added to the National Register by the end of this year:   ● San Clemente   ● Winterhaven     Resources   ● www.nationalregisterof historicplaces.com   l Information about the National Register of Historic Places, inc luding how to apply to be on the register.   ● www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/AZ/pima/districts.html   l A link to the list of neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places.   ● www.ci.tucson.az.us/planning/maps/thematic/natlhist.pdf   ● Downloads a map of neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places (uses Adobe Acrobat Reader).   ● www2.cr.nps.gov/   www.cr.nps.gov/nr   ● Historic Preservation Services through the National Park Service.   ● Marty McCune   ● Historic preservation officer, Department of Urban Planning and Design   791-4505   Marty.McCune@tucsonaz.gov   McCune recommends the book "A Guide to Tucson Architecture" by Anne M. Nequette and Brooks Jeffery (University of Arizona Press, $23), which lists walking tours.

Walk with Annette Campbell through the streets of El Presidio, the neighborhood where she has lived for 22 years, and suddenly you'll inhabit both Tucson's present and its past. Campbell barely stops as she points out the houses built during Tucson's early years and rattles off facts about their architecture and occupants. "The El Presidio neighborhood is unique in that it was always multicultural and multiuse," Campbell says of the Downtown-area neighborhood. "There were three Chinese corner markets here, because the Chinese did all the produce gardening. Native Americans sold their wares here. There were Hispanic and black families. There were large mansions that employed people. The structures are so interesting because of the diversity of people." This is Tucson's oldest neighborhood, with nearly 80 historical buildings in a 12-block area. The structures date from the mid-1800s to 1912. Campbell lives in the Fleischman House, a Craftsman-style structure built in 1906 by the architectural team of Holmes and Holmes. Campbell, owner of Campbell Design and Communications and a longtime activist in historic preservation, reels off the names of some of early Tucson's most well-known families. And, of course, she can points out their homes, among them Sam Hughes, Edward Fish, Hiram Stevens, Selim Franklin and Annie Cheyney. Stopping near an old Sonoran adobe house, she makes note of the year - 1880 - the railroad arrived in Tucson. "The trains brought building materials we didn't have before. There was a shift from adobe with mesquite and saguaro rib ceilings to volcanic basalt stone, lumber and fired brick. There are so few Sonoran adobes left now. The different materials led to different architectural styles." Campbell's neighborhood could well have been destroyed during the 1960s, when urban renewal spread across the country. "We lost some magnificent houses to urban renewal," she says. "They will never be replaced." During the urban renewal period, bulldozers razed nearly half the barrios in Tucson, displacing their occupants and destroying an important part of the city's history. The Tucson Convention Center, parking lots, and public buildings replaced the old adobe structures. "It was a wound for the community," says Marty McCune, Tucson's historic preservation officer. "Urban renewal spawned the whole national historic preservation movement." Thanks to historic preservation, today Tucson has 19 neighborhoods listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with two more scheduled to be added before the end of the year, says McCune. Of the 19 neighborhoods, five have added protection as local historic districts, including El Presidio. "Local designation makes it nearly impossible to tear down a structure," says McCune. "The local designation was critical in saving Armory Park, Barrio Historico, El Presidio, and West University. All you need to do is drive around those neighborhoods and you'll see that the visual character remains. It's why people want to live and work there." A neighborhood must be at least 50 years old for its residents to apply for the National Register, and it must be architecturally important to its community, state or nation. The process is lengthy (on average two to three years, says McCune), and there is a lot of paperwork. It is also costly - about $30,000 for 300 properties - though there are usually grants to help defray the cost. McCune helps neighborhoods find grants. The lure of historic designation is twofold: Owners have the honor of having their homes listed on the Register, and they qualify for a 50 percent property tax reduction (see resource list on Page HX for Web sites and contact info). The local historic designation is more difficult to obtain. McCune says she's a "big fan of both designations. It's a wonderful neighborhood cohesion project and really a great experience. You learn about the people in your neighborhood, the history, the architecture." Alice Roe knows well both the ups and downs of going through the demanding process required to get a neighborhood accepted onto the National Register. Roe and her husband have lived in a 1938 Prairie-style home in the large Blenman-Elm neighborhood since 1975. Roe is on the board of the association of the Midtown neighborhood, which began the process in 1997 and received its historic designation last year. "It is a huge community-building project," she says. "About 60 people from the neighborhood got involved. Neighbors met neighbors over this. Some people went to the historical society and did research, others did data entry, and others took photographs. People got very excited because doing historical research is fun. Some people found clippings about former owners." Roe was among them: She discovered that suffragist and birth-control activist Margaret Sanger once lived in her home, as did H. Byron McCormick, a former University of Arizona president. Another positive side of the historic designation, says Roe, is that it "provides a carrot to keep homeowners in their homes. The 50 percent tax reduction is only available to owner-occupied homes. You cannot rent the property out." That typically helps raise property values. "In general, it's an attribute," Realtor Pat Jessup says of the historic designation. "One of the attractions is the 50 percent tax reduction. I've never found anyone put off by it," says Jessup, who works with Long Realty and specializes in Central Tucson. Jessup lives in the Sam Hughes neighborhood, which is also on the National Register. "I live in a house built in the late 1920s," he says. "I'm the fourth occupant. There is a sense of being part of something. The beauty for me is that it's very much a neighborhood, with a variety of people from all walks of life." It has now been nearly 60 years since World War II ended. For Tucson, the postwar years saw new developments proliferating. Now they are nearing the time when they, too, can apply for historic status. But not yet. "We're doing a context study," says McCune. "We're looking at all our postwar neighborhoods, and we'll make a determination on what are eligible. We aren't accepting applications for the next year or two while we complete the study." Meanwhile, it seems a good idea to follow Annette Campbell's advice: "Do a little reading and walk around the neighborhoods to see how Tucson evolved. We don't want to lose the historic fiber of Tucson. We are keepers of that history." Read more

 

● El Presidio Historic District welcomes the whole city to its annual 1900 Festival. Read more about the Nov. 7 event next week in Home. Local historic regions

 

These five neighborhoods have the city of Tucson Historic District designation, meaning homes in the neighborhood can't be significantly altered. They are also on the National Register of Historic Places. The dates indicate when each neighborhood received the local designation. ● Armory Park (1974) ● Barrio Historico (1975) ● El Presidio (1975) ● Fort Lowell (1978) ● West University (1980) Nationally listed neighborhoods

 

These neighborhoods are on the National Register of Historic Places: ● University of Arizona Campus Historic District ● Iron Horse Expansion Historic District ● El Encanto Estates Residential Historic Districts ● Colonia Solana Residential Historic District ● John Spring Neighborhood Historic District ● Speedway-Drachman Historic District l Menlo Park Multiple Resource Area ● Sam Hughes Residential Historic District ● Warehouse Historic District ● El Montevideo Residential Historic District ● Pie Allen Residential Historic District ● Indianhouse Residential Historic District ● Blenman-Elm Historic District ● Catalina Vista Historic District Pending

 

These two neighborhoods will be added to the National Register by the end of this year: ● San Clemente ● Winterhaven Resources

 

● www.nationalregisterof historicplaces.com l Information about the National Register of Historic Places, inc luding how to apply to be on the register. ● www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/AZ/pima/districts.html

 

l A link to the list of neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places. ● www.ci.tucson.az.us/planning/maps/thematic/natlhist.pdf ● Downloads a map of neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places (uses Adobe Acrobat Reader). ● www2.cr.nps.gov/ www.cr.nps.gov/nr ● Historic Preservation Services through the National Park Service. ● Marty McCune

 

● Historic preservation officer, Department of Urban Planning and Design 791-4505 Marty.McCune@tucsonaz.gov McCune recommends the book "A Guide to Tucson Architecture" by Anne M. Nequette and Brooks Jeffery (University of Arizona Press, $23), which lists walking tours.